Silent, White Eyes (5-17-09)
by Eagleflame
Summary: Hemming has always been afraid of lightening - so when Markus invites him to beta test Minecraft with him on a stormy day, for him, nothing could go well. Once a hacker gets into the system, the events of Minecraft's past spiral out of control and into the darkest depths of all players' computer systems. Part 1 in Hemming's POV, Part 2 in the hacker's, and Part 3 in Herobrine's.
1. Markus' Brother

**Disclaiming Note: Hemming is the human counterpart of Herobrine. As Herobrine is Markus's dead brother in the lore, and since this story first takes place in the third-person POV of Markus's (alive) brother, I had to give Herobrine a human name and a human life. There is nothing online to suggest that Herobrine's real name is Hemming, nor is this story "true" in any way - obvious, yes, but I just had to put that out there ;) Please enjoy 5-17-09!**

"Markus, look OUUUT!"

"-!"

A flash of light. That's how quick it happened. A flash of lightning in a window ended everything. Two people in the same area, one person left blaming himself somewhere far away. Two brothers... And a hacker.

* * *

"Thanks for sending me the game, Markus." Hemming adjusts his headset and smiles earnestly at the webcam.

Markus's face blurs and lags as he shifts around in his office chair. He smiles back in a distracted reply and ducks back down. Hemming frowns as his brother finally pulls himself back up for air, clutching a notebook scribbled with neat, labeled notes. "You do have a notebook, right? After all, you are here to beta test this. If you're here to help me out, Hem, you have to actually work."

"I know, I know. I um, I found a great notebook on sale last week." he fibs, flicking his pale eyes off to his left. Markus frowns and gives his brother a concerned look. "Really, I'm fine. I have one, Markus." Hemming manages a weary smile and tightens his hold on the battered computer mouse. "Seriously though, I'm really grateful for this opportunity." He mumbles it, ashamed of his joblessness.

His brother turns his frown into a relieved smile and turns back down to his own mouse, shifting the small white arrow to the corner of his screen. Hemming's lagging face closes into a tab at the bottom of Markus's computer; the removal of the live webcam image reveals the programmer's cluttered computer screen.

Hemming rubs his temples before doing the same, the little arrow moving at the speed of slow. He growls and jerks the mouse hard before returning it to the corner of the screen. Markus's face disappears with an almost-unbearable lag to it, enough so that Hemming could see it shrinking down square by square until it was tiny, then eventually fully tabbed and invisible. Hemming's screen is clutter-less, the only digital decoration adorning the blank blue background is a small white square of an application: no design marks it as special, and no coherent label gives a clue to what it contains. The application title is glitched out. His arrow clicker - lagging horrendously - drifts over to it. "So... You sure Jens is okay with me playing..." His voice drifts off into uncomfortable silence.

Markus's side of the conversation crackles before he responds with an all-to-confident answer. "Well, obviously. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to help me test _Minecraft_."

"Right..." Hemming's tone is nervous. His head jerks sharply off to the side, making him wince and rub it with a fingerless-gloved hand. "Ow..." he mutters, massaging it.

"You alright?"

"Just that twitch again. It's nothin', Markus." Hemming pokes his tongue out and double clicks the blank application. Markus does the same, his mouse clicking twice on the other end of the communication link.

"Join my world." Markus asks bluntly. Hemming nods nervously and clicks Multiplayer, letting out a small "ah" of recognition when his pale gaze connects with his older brother's screen name. A lagging world loads up on his cracked screen, the game's chunks loading painstakingly slow. "Oh... Hero... Brine..? Hemming, what kind of username is that?"

"Is there a problem with my screen name?" Hemming replies quietly, voice unnervingly calm and expressionless. Markus shudders at his brother's dark response and whispers a "no", dropping his gaze back down to his trembling hand tensed on his computer mouse.

Markus suddenly cringes as a weather alert blares an automated voice in his ears. "Hemming, be careful playing tonight. There's suppose to be a lightning storm in your area." he murmurs, moving his character forward toward his brother's standard avatar.

"Lightning won't strike me twice, Markus!" Hemming laughs, ignoring the gentle pull of his head to his left, twitching straight, left, straight, left. He rubs it with his palm before focusing back to _Minecraft_ and Markus. Without giving it a glance, he closes out of the same alert, revealing Minecraft once again. "So that's your username, right? Notch?"

"Mm-hm. Better than Herobrine, that's for sure!" Markus says, teasing his brother playfully.

Hemming protests and attempts to explain the best he can, but deep down, he knows that his brother really doesn't feel hatred toward the game handle.

His also moves his character, yet unsteadily compared to the expert controls of Markus Persson, who's been slowing building _Minecraft_ from the ground up. Hemming is only a pawn in its development.

"Oh, Hem, 'e' to activate your inventory, 'q' to throw an object you're holding in your hand, 't' is... Something I'm working on. 'wasd' keys are moving around, or you could always just use the arrows..." Hemming smiles. "The left clicker of your mouse is destroy, and right clicker's use the item in your hand."

"How do I tell if I'm holding it? How can I hold it?"

"You just click and select what you want to hold in your inventory bar." Markus replies flatly and a little annoyed. "It'll show the box outlined in green."

"Excellent, most excellent..." Hemming mutters, trying out some of the keys before giving up with an exasperated expel of breath from his mouth. He double clicks the top arrow key, expecting walking speed, then lets out a scream when his character begins to run. "Ah-ah-?!"

"Oh! Hemming!" Markus begins to chuckle, trying his best to cover his mouth. "That's sprinting. It's something still in the works, and it's top secret, just like you. Alright?"

Hemming purses his lips tightly, fully knowing his brother's webcam window is also tabbed. He can't see his face then. "Yeah. Sure." he murmurs, narrowing his eyes. He's just a secret. That's all. So if he really isn't suppose to be helping his brother...

He can end up doing more harm than help.

"You've really adapted quickly, haven't you?" Markus raises his eyebrows at his brother's avatar, digging up dirt blocks and punching off leaves from trees. "But _Minecraft_ isn't just about destruction-"

"-it's about creation. Hey, look, Markus!" Hemming cries out joyously. He right-clicks the trunk of the tree, the dirt going where the leaves were. Markus rolls his eyes at his brother's cackles of joy. "Hey, hey, can we go into that mountain over there?"

Both avatars swivel toward the towering chunk of stone glowering over them. "Herobrine" starts to sprint over to the digital rock, his real life counterpart yelling in excitement over the webcam conversation. Notch reluctantly follows along.

Herobrine begins smashing his block fist into the grey wall in front of him - holding down the mouse button with excessive force - but the rock holds strong despite its simple appearance. "Dang it, dang it... Come on, come on..." The avatar swings his head behind him, to where Notch stands fully accompanied by a joyous ring of laughter. Hemming's face grows hot, and he turns his player's full body toward his brother's. "What the crap, Markus, stop laughing!" he complains loudly. Markus continues to laugh over the microphone, then falters into snickers and later a gasp. The embarrassed brother stares down at the crusty carpet underneath his chair and bites his lip hard. _Dang_ , he thinks bitterly, tears starting to water his eyes. He rubs them hard and glares at the webcam, despite his full knowledge that Markus can't see him while they're playing. "There's an in-game item I hafta use, don' I?" he asks wearily.

"Here, I'll give you some iron I collected a while back. I've been on this world a while." Herobrine reluctantly picks up several flat, pixelated bars of iron that fly out from Notch's avatar. He stares at his inventory bar and equips the iron in his hand. _Seemingly useless... How is this suppose to help me?_ Hemming can't help doubting his brother, despite his extensive knowledge on the subject of _Minecraft_ and online gaming: knowledge Hemming himself doesn't have. "Punch that tree you defaced. You'll get some wood blocks which you can use to make sticks for the handle of your future pickaxe."

Hemming lets out a quiet "oh" and shuffles his character from the mountain back to his claimed tree. The trunk breaks easier and quicker than the rock, dropping little flat trunk squares that Herobrine sucks into his avatar and his inventory bar.

He concentrates on his open, enlarged storage, his finger retracting from the "e" back to his trembling hand. Grinning as understanding suddenly comes to him, he drags the trunk pieces into the larger square - divided in four - and gets planks. He crafts farther, spreading four plank blocks in the four smaller squares to get one "crafting table". Hemming cackles and slams the new block down in front of him on the crunchy grass. "See, Markus? Hahaha, I'm not stupid! I can figure this game out!"

"Yes, you certainly can... That's very good, Hemming!" he replies, surprise tinging his voice. "Now click it to craft bigger objects."

Eagerly clicking the "crafting table", Hemming, while excited, obeys his brother's instructions with nothing less than jealous disgust. There he goes again, bossing Hemming around and treating him like a mentally-ill child who can't do anything. His hand tightens around the mouse, anger flooding through him as he's forced to "keep up" with Markus's molasses-slow steps-to-craft-an-iron-pickaxe.

"Drag those remaining wooden planks into a square... Any square now... Make some sticks, Hemming... Remove the excess planks..." Hemming's head hits the keyboard as his brother drones on for several long minutes, plowing through the newbie-player's exasperated growl - buzzing through the webcam audio - as if it didn't exist. "...you should now have one completed iron pickaxe." Markus finishes proudly.

Hemming's lower lip trembles as he stares at the in-game item, floating gently in his right-hand field-of-view. _I don't want this. I didn't earn it or find it or even dig it up somewhere - if that's at all possible. It's like welfare. It's just handed to you, all because you're too helpless to actually work. There are multiple reasons for everything in life, but this? Beta testing a game that I'm not even suppose to be testing? Receiving the main material for a iron pickaxe all for what? To properly dig a hole through a mountain? There is no... REASON for this, and as long as I'm playing this game..._

 _...I'll figure out the reason._


	2. Glitch

Hemming has always felt inferior to his older brother. Markus was talented, sure, and plenty popular. Deep down, Hemming knows that's never going to change; he also knows that, with his inexperienced influence or not, Minecraft is going to soar higher than any other game on the charts. He can't help but feel happy for Markus.

But Markus isn't happy with him.

Just in the last fifteen minutes alone of playing Minecraft, Hemming's demonstrated just how terrible he is with online games. Instead of listening to his brother's words of advice, he mutes the webcam audio and builds tiny pyramids in the sand near "Notch's" house. He strips all of Notch's trees of their leaves and plants the resulting saplings far too close to the original tree trunks where they will never grow. And Hemming wonders why his new pickaxe's "damage level" - Markus calls it - is under half.

Notch suddenly hits Herobrine hard, iron sword smashing into Hemming's avatar with brute force. Hemming wails and unmutes the webcam. "Markus, stop!"

The sword stops swinging, stops lunging toward him. The ten red hearts dotting Hemming's screen are all nearly dark: only half of the last heart remains candy-red. Hemming breathes hard into the mic, eyes wide. "Glitch..?" he whimpers, slumping down in his chair. His knuckles are white, gripping the edge of the warped, wooden desk with jagged fingernails digging into the wood grain.

"Sorry," was his only reply. "No glitch. I was trying to get your attention, Hem." he sighed. The exhale of breath buzzes through the webcam microphone makes Hemming cringe away.

"But you almost killed me!"

"I was also trying to get you to unmute the webcam and listen to me."

"Oh." Hemming pushes himself up straight in his chair, blinking wearily. A headache is beginning to blossom and pound in his head without relent. He's not used to staring at a screen with a constant gaze yet. "Well then, what is it you wish to tell me?"

"Before you waste anymore of that pickaxe, we really should get going on that mountain if you want to crack it open."

"Really?" Hemming's tone is hopeful and excited. "Really, Markus, really?!"

Markus grimaces and readjusts his headset. "Yes. Stop yelling in my ear!" he scolds, then laughs. "Of course, really! Now come'on, I'll show you how it goes."

Twenty minutes later, Hemming was beginning to rethink his status as a terrible online gaming player. He smiles with glowing pride as his brother's praises resurface and echo in his mind: a joyous ring of laughter, a shout of pleasure. He was a natural, possessing valedictorian mining skills that rival that of the game's creator himself.

The two brothers were halfway into the mountain, digging out a 2x2 tunnel extending deep into the stone, when Hemming started to get frustrated. Markus insisted on leading, giving Hemming the wonderful task of placing torches thrown to him minutes earlier. While digging out a mountain, he explains the "mere basics" of Minecraft mining. An explanation lasting thirteen minutes. Finally, Hemming got sick of listening to his brother and shoves Herobrine up front, digging side-by-side Notch. "I get it already, Markus. We're looking for diamonds. Let ME lead now!"

Hemming smiles. I bet Markus didn't regret that decision, he thinks as he shifts Herobrine's gaze briefly to glance at Notch behind him; then, when he knew his brother was still following him without complaint, continues digging steps down, down, deeper into the mountain's heart like the dwarfs in the book Hemming cherishes.

Herobrine breaks the four blocks in front of him. Hemming yelps and eases off the arrow key, gasping. A wide, yawning ravine cuts off their determined tunnel, the teetering edge directly in front of Herobrine's square foot. Notch slams into him, not seeing the ravine and Herobrine's abrupt stop in time, and pushes his brother's avatar clean off the sharp cliff face.

Hemming barely had time to think before Herobrine crunches, rock-bottom, with a "UH!" Markus's end of the webcam audio crackles. Herobrine's items - his near-broken pick, the stacks upon stacks of cobblestone, the coal, iron, and extra wood - are spread out around the ominous death message prompted front-and-center of his suddenly red-stained screen.

Hemming's throat rips out an incomprehensible sound as he leans across his desk to stare deeper into his computer and Minecraft. He sees Notch dig his way down and land directly in front of Herobrine's corpse, sucking up - stealing - his items. The younger brother's lower lip trembles as he slowly, painstakingly, leans back in his chair and draws his legs up, burying his face behind his bony knees. His thin shoulders shake as he wraps his arms around himself in an attempt of a self-inflicted hug.

"Hem? Hem? Hem, it's alright, just click 'respawn'! It's alright!"

Silence.

"Hemming, I know you're there. I can hear you crying."

"Jus' shut up." Hemming mutters quietly, not caring whether or not his brother really heard him.

"I don't know why you're so upset, Minecraft's just like any other game." Markus sounds confused. "When you die, you just respawn at your spawn point. That's all."

"I've never played any other game."

Markus jumps and peers concerningly at the little camera embedded above his laptop's screen. "Hem? It's alright."

"I'm not upset over that... Markus. Or the... T-the..." Hemming sniffs hard and wipes away tears. "...spawn thingy."

"Then what..?"

You pushed me. You pushed me, and you don't understand. You didn't even mention it, or even think about it. Think about ME for once, Markus. Not your game. Just... Please...

Hemming sighs shakily and lowers his feet back down to his crusty ivory carpet. Sniffling, he navigates his trembling hand to his mouse and tentatively jerks the little arrow to the small grey "respawn" button. His screen blinks white, then immediately a light blue wash covers it, the chunks of Markus's world loading and lagging.

Abruptly, the green grass, sand, and trees of the outside spawn point flick to darkness. Hemming's breathing becomes quick, shallow. Herobrine swings around frantically, and - if he had a heart like his human counterpart - his heart beats like a rhythmic bass drum; it pounds and echoes in his ears, amplified by the complete. Utter. Silence.

Then suddenly a groan sounds. One, two groans. A clack. A hiss.

"M-Markus..?" Hemming whimpers, nerves flooding through him. "Markus..?!"

"Hem, where are you? You did click 'respawn', right? You should be here by now." Markus frowns and moves Notch's gaze back up to the top of the ravine.

Herobrine grunts and recoils as his hearts - his now-full hearts - darken by two. Another grunt. An arrow whizzes by and slams into his chest, darkening more hearts.

"MARKUS-!"


	3. An Enigmatic Player

A flash of light. That's all Hemming saw on his screen. A flash of light, a bolt of lightning. An exploding roar of thunder makes him cringe as more superheated electricity reflects across the cracked glass screen.

Heart palpitating, a glossy sheen slicking his forehead, Hemming turns in his seat back to his game. Hemming's head spasms left, left, left, dragging it down in quick jerking motions. On Minecraft, Herobrine grunts and slides backward as he's struck down by more, invisible weapons.

"Hemming? Hemming, where are you?"

"A-a..." Hemming takes a breath rubs his temples with the insides of his wrists. "A glitch." he whimpers, glancing nervously at the lighting arching in the wicked clouds outside his window. _Relax. Calm down. The storm is still far away, the lightning isn't that close yet!_

"O-oh! Describe, please!" Hemming squeezes his eyes shut as Herobrine "UH!" for the last time. The red screen of death.

Markus gasps in excitement as he fwips his notebook to a fresh page, labeling it discreetly: "BT-ing w/ Salt" so Jens and the others don't get suspicious. "Please, Hem, describe what happened!"

"I clicked 'respawn'," Hemming swallows hard and punctures his lower lip with his teeth. A metallic taste permeates inside of his mouth, making him moan and sob. "A-a-and I s-s... Started to spawn back at yer home, but-but then I spawned somewhere dark and I got attacked!" His voice raises to a hysterical pitch, and he grips the edge of his table enough so splinters stab into his fingers and palms. "Poor Herobrine died twice in two minutes!"

"Glitch number... 374. Date..." Markus starts to mutter to himself over the webcam audio. Hemming ignores him, instead flicking his nervous gaze back to the lightning in the distance. "...Hem, you still there?"

"Y-yeah." Hemming's head twitches for a brief moment before he turns back to his computer. "I'm... I'm still here, Markus." He takes a deep, shuddering breath and rubs his arms, barring his teeth in a snarl to frighten away bad memories.

"Try to respawn again." Markus looks up from his notebook and smiles reassuringly at the webcam; despite knowing Hemming doesn't have his camera feed up, he still tries to comfort him, at least in the hopes that he'll feel the smile from where he is. "It's alright, Hem, it was just a glitch."

"Mm." Hemming purses his trembling lower lip tight and cautiously moves his mouse to the "respawn" button. But before he could apply pressure to the mouse clicker, something flicks in the corner of the screen. Frowning, Hemming leans forward closer to the computer. Another flick. Mobs, yes. But...

A player's blocky legs come into view directly in Herobrine's field of vision. The same skin as he. _Glitch_. The legs glitch. _Glitch_. Hemming stares deep into the block legs, an unsettling chill flooding through his muscles, freezing his hand. _Glitch_.

"Hemming?"

"Markus." Hemming says quietly, not taking his eyes off of the mysterious player's legs.

"You alright? Have you respawned yet? You didn't spawn-glitch again, did you?" Markus teases.

"Markus..." Hemming twists his mouth, trying to describe it. "A-another player."

"Zombie." he answers simply. "I don't have anyone else but you playing."

"It's not groaning, Markus."

The player shifts off-screen, then walks back into Herobrine's point of view. The player, now from a distance, gazes at Herobrine, revealing his full avatar. Hemming can barely see him - though better than earlier as the red-tinted screen, usually so ominous, helps to reveal his frightening surroundings - but feels him. Feels his hot stare fixated on the younger brother of Markus, the Salt Hero, the poor, unemployed, inexperienced gamer who finds himself at quite a predicament. If no other person other than he and Markus were playing...

"...that would make them a hacker, now wouldn't it?" Hemming mutters, folding his hands in front of his face in pondering thought.

"Er, what was that?" Markus asks. His webcam audio crackles as if he were adjusting the mic on his headset.

"Nothin'." his brother says, dropping his pale eye's jittery stare to the floor. Thunder booms in the distance. _If there's really a hacker in this game... Then that must mean he must know things... Things about "Minecraft" that I don't know. And he also knows that, unless Markus is a cut-rate excuse for a online gamer, there is someone else playing with my brother! This hacker could tell Jens and get Markus in trouble for something that I have done! A-and then, once Jens knows, he could fire Markus-!_

"Hey, Markus?" Hemming swallows hard and rubs his neck as another spasm jerks it hard to his left.

"What is it, Hem?"

"I-I'ma gonna respawn now, okay?"

"Um..." Markus blinks and raises an eyebrow. "Sure..? I thought you already did, but..." He shrugs and smiles widely. "Go ahead."

Shuddering as the hacker's cold stare stays trailed on Herobrine's invisible body, Hemming - cautiously, for fear of more "surprises" - moves his arrow to the "respawn" tile. His screen instantly turns white, but Hemming hadn't hit "respawn" yet.

Hemming shrieks and cowers as booming thunder, accompanied by cruel lightning, lances and crackles outside his window. He gasps - hyperventilating as nightmarish memories resurface - and slams his hands over his ears, covered by the headset, curling up in his chair. _No, no, nonono, NO!_

Markus jumps as the webcam conversation suddenly crackles dead. He, perplexed, taps the little headset mic and tentatively calls out Hemming's name.

"Hemming..? Hemming, you alright? What happened?"

Another weather warning.

"Hemm _ing_? HEMMING?!"


	4. Right or Left

_"HemmING? HEMMING?!"_

 _"M-Markusss..? Ah... A-ah..."_

 _"Hem! Hem, what happened?!"_

"Hemming! Hemming, answer me! Come on, Hemming-!"

Moaning, Hemming tentatively cracks open an eyelid and gropes around for the desk edge. He pulls himself up from his fetal position of terror in his chair to a sitting position of trembling fright. Hemming blinks, rubs his swollen eyes, sniffs, and sighs: his headset's cord had been unplugged from the computer.

A sharp crackling greets Hemming's timpanum as the thin plug connects with and remarries the hole in the box computer. Markus's shrieks of horror, followed closely by sobs, are now audible loudly through the headphones. Hemming blinks again, rolls his eyes, and taps the little mic with a pale finger.

"Markus."

Silence. Then a shrill cry: " _HEMMING?!_ "

"Hey, Markus." the younger brother says quietly, head lowered in grievous shame. Markus's despondent tears and blubbering, rarely-heard sobs finally become harsh reality in Hemming's screen-fatigued brain. He had thought his brother died.

Hemming clicks "respawn". The little time he had spent in his embryonic position was time long enough to grant the hacker escape. He watches as his screen turns white, then light blue; the waiting for the spawn-glitch had begun.

Fortunately, however, no glitch occurred and Herobrine found himself respawned with his maimed tree.

"I'm um... Respawned, Markus." Hemming says awkwardly.

Markus's webcam side crackles with newfound energy that ends up dashing away any tears he might have shed just mere minutes earlier. "Good! Good good good, Hemming! Now go down the tunnel and follow the torches we placed! I'm waiting at the bottom of the ravine with your items!" he laughs.

Hemming's eyes widen. Then his mouth curls into a smile, a small, relieved smile. "O-okay Markus, I'm coming!"

Herobrine sprints into the tunnel entrance, then fades to a walk when the ravine comes into view, square feet softly pattering and shuffing down the smooth stone walkway cutting straight though the mountain.

Hemming's eyes dart from the window - still crackling with electrical energy - to his screen and _Minecraft_. He finally, slowly, lets off pressure on the top arrow key, resulting in avatar Herobrine to stop a few wary blocks from the ravine's sharp lip. Pursing his lips tightly, he scans the area around the jagged gorge, looking for a safe place to fall without receiving the red screen of death.

"Where do I come down, Markus?" Hemming asks plaintively. Markus makes a pondering, concentrating noise over the webcam audio and furrows his eyebrows. "I mean, should I just-..." A sudden flick stops Hemming cold. A flick, a tiny flick, flittering in the corner of his vision. Heart pounding, breathing becoming quick and hyperventilating, Hemming turns toward the flutter.

"Should you what?"

Oh... Hemming smiles a tiny, weak, relieved smile as a moth flies waywardly to another spot on his worn wall. He laughs a scoff and turns back to his computer. "Should I just jump down?" His heart stops pounding, his breathing slows to an even, calm pattern, and yet his heart won't stop fluttering like the moth on his wall. A bad feeling slowly creeps into Hemming's circulation, making him cold, making him shiver and grab his arms, rubbing them vigorously before glueing his right hand back onto the mouse and his left onto the arrow keys. Yet as much as Hemming was drowning in a stifling, frightening feeling... He couldn't pinpoint it. He couldn't figure it out, nothing specific was screaming _bad feeling._ It was as if it was almost... _Hiding_ from Hemming.

"No, don't jump! I'll make you stairs."

Hemming wonders if the bad feeling he was experiencing was connected with jumping down the ravine and smashing, breaking, crunching, " _UH!_ "-ing on the cold, hard smooth stone below. But as Notch built crude stairs cobblestone block by cobblestone block up, up to Herobrine, as Herobrine climbed down said stairs, being careful not to fall, the bad feeling remained. In fact, _it grew stronger_ , yet the mysteriousity behind the sensation remained unknown.

Shaking his head hard, Hemming has Herobrine jump down the final block and onto safe ground below. Notch walks deeper into the ravine, following its length to the left of Hemming's avatar, prompting the Salt Hero to follow. He does.

"If there's nothing at the end of this, we'll turn back and head down the right side. Heheh, get it, Hem? The _right_ side?"

Hemming snickers. "Pun."

"That was punny."

"Punny, hehe."

Nerves still flood through him, fueling an insane tumble of laughter spilling from both Hemming and Markus's mouths like a waterfall, enough so tears form. _We must both be nervous to laugh like this! It's been years since I've laughed. I've forgotten just how pleasing and relieving of stress it is_ , Hemming thinks, still sniggering. _I should do it more often._

"Hehehe... Come on, Hem, let's get goin'." Markus half-smothers a laugh over the webcam. Hemming smiles widely and, still suppressing a laugh, moves a silent Herobrine forward. Herobrine could almost be brooding for all Hemming knows. He'd almost chastise his avatar if he could. Herobrine was far too dark for just a simple game.


	5. Hacker

**Sorry it took so long, and if you thought the chapters kept getting smaller and smaller: you're right! That was completely by accident, and by no means do I want to give the impression that future chapters will be tiny one hundred word "chapters" (shudders)... Be sure to read the note at the bottom when you're done reading! :)**

Herobrine and Notch shuff down the left-hand side of the ravine, a heavy silence between them. As Hemming controls Herobrine, the sinking feeling of dread remains all too ominous and all too unclear. _I don't understand,_ he thinks, frustrated, _why it won't go away. GO AWAY already, there is nothing wrong and there is nothing bad! This is just a computer game, it can't affect me in real life._

"H-hey, Markus?"

"What is it?" Markus blinks and adjusts his headset.

Hemming bites his lip hard and looks down at his worn brown shoes. "Nothin'."

As the two players reach the halfway point of the ravine, something catches Markus's eye. "Ah! A glitch!"

Hemming jumps and knocks his forearm into the open glass of water sitting precariously on his desk. Gasping, he jerks his head down to the floor, his white hand clutching the back of his worn chair. The paper cup rolls back and forth in its own soiled mess upon the crusty carpet. "What glitch?" Hemming replies, annoyed, rolling his eyes. He sits back up in his chair and growls as his feet hit and squish into sodden fibers. "There's only a tunnel there. Y' know, from the cave system."

Notch walks into the thin, two blocks tall and one block wide, tunnel, forcing Herobrine to follow out of shear curiosity. Hemming's bad feeling burns darker. Markus automatically starts to place torches on the right side as he leads farther and deeper down the redundant row of invisible air blocks. After several minutes of background thunder and Minecraft silence, Hemming groans loudly. "Come _on,_ Markus! We're not getting anywhere! At this rate, I'l be long dead and gone by the time we reach the end!"

"Patience, Hemming! We have to exploit this, which I'm sure you're well aware of." he replies in a chipped voice. Hemming narrows his eyes and moves his player ahead of Notch. "What are you doing? You lost all your items, you'd be worthless up front!"

Herobrine stops and slowly turns around. As he does so, Minecraft lags worse that it has been before. Hemming's emotions seethe as Notch takes the lead again with a stuffy "Thank you." But as Notch continues his pointless plight of glitch-busting, Herobrine doesn't move. In fact, he stays painfully still.

"I'm not moving." Hemming's ominous whisper buzzes breathily over Markus's headset. He frowns, then rolls his eyes and keeps moving. "Markus, stop." He stays mobile. " _Markus. Stop._ "

" _What?_ " Hemming's brother says icily, finally stopping.

Hemming's face contorts with a certain fury to it. His right hand tightens around the mouse: if it were real, he would have surely killed it. "It's jus' a stupid tunnel, Markus. Probably done by the same _stupid_ hacker that's inside _your_ game _RIGHT NOW!_ " he screams. "And you call me _worthless._ Guess who saw that player and _guess who tried to tell you._ " His voice lowers to a growl. "But I'm just your worthless, unemployed brother. _Naturally_ you wouldn't believe him. He's just the worthless 'n00b' player who doesn't know a 'Zombie' from a 'Steve.'"

"I-I... There's a hacker?" Markus's voice is very small. "Well then, we have to catch him!" he decides, unabashed. Hemming feels tears come to his eyes as his brother's avatar starts up again. "If he is the one who dug this, then we have to find him before he causes too much damage!" Notch goes at a beta-test sprint. Gasping, Hemming jams his finger on the correct key to catch up with his brother's frantic avatar.

Notch abruptly stops at the lip of a yawning cavern. Herobrine barely halts in time. In the middle of the dead-end cave was a lavafall that flows out to all but a thick ring of smooth-stone blocks outlining the pool. "We've hit a cave." Hemming notices.

"No. A cavern, Hemming. It doesn't branch off."

"Right." He rolls his eyes.

Hidden from the sight of the two beta testers, in the right-hand corner of the cavern, is a simple Steve clutching a diamond pick in his blocky hand. The avatar glitches as it mines a rich vein of diamond set deep in the cave's wall. It abruptly stops as Notch and Herobrine enter the cavern and delves into his inventory bar.

"Hey-hey, who the heck-?! Hem, where did you see this guy?!"

"In that cave I accidentally spawned in! I tried telling you!"

"Jus' shut up and get away, Hemming!" Markus yells harshly. "I'll deal with him!"

"Give me a sword, and let me fight." Hemming says slowly in reply. "Shove down your ego for one minute and give. Me. A. Sword."

Markus purses his lips and sighs, throwing a duplicate iron sword out from his inventory bar. Herobrine steps over it and sucks it up with pleasure. It automatically goes into his hand. "Thank you."

Notch also arms himself with a sword bearing a diamond blade. He faces off the generic Steve with anger, anger that some _punk_ dares to hack into his game and jeopardize the entire beta test of _Minecraft!_ "Get outaaa of here you littllle-!"

Two swords collide in an arc of sparks. The player, whose nametag reads as "DiamondShiner74", swings his sword again, the thick blade slamming into Notch's shoulder. Notch, seething, retaliates with a massive spam of his clicker. DiamondShiner74's avatar slides back as Notch connects with all his hits just as Minecraft's creator should.

" _Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh!_ "

Diamond glitches for a moment, then suddenly zips forward. " _WHAT?!_ " Markus screams, leaning forward in his desk-

" _Markus, look OUUUT!_ "

" _HEMMING-!_ "

-as DiamondShiner74 lands a critical blow on his brother.

Herobrine smashes to the ground, his ten red hearts stained black. _Dead._

Notch stays eerily still, his breath exhaling raggedly from his mouth. Hemming's line crackles. "Go fight him, Markus." Hemming says, his lower lip trembling. "You're always gonna be a better fighter than me anyways." He smiles earnestly, little lines folding at the corners of his eyes. "I'll try to re-log in." His colorless eyes drift from the computer screen to his apartment's window. "Listen... If-if you don' beat 'im..."

Markus blinks and grips his mouse tighter as DiamondShiner74 begins to advance again. And yet he's listening, mouth gaping open slightly, as his brother's words will be forever seared into his mind, his heart. "I'll protect the players. Keep them safe from the things they can't see. I'm only there to protect them." His voice breaks. Silence is his brother's reply. "Markus..?"

"Hem. Hem, what's wrong?" Markus's mouth tastes metallic.

Hemming closes his eyes and twitches his mouth into a sad and lonely smile. "Don't say I don't exist."

A strange choking noise sounds over Markus's headset, and his connection with Hemming crackles dead. Markus double-takes, his heart beginning to flutter, and nervously moves Minecraft's window out of the way.

 **Caller Offline**

Markus stares at the screen for a good long while, eyes wide. "H-Hem? Oh, what am I doin'?" _He accidentally hung up on me._ "In his state, I'm not surprised." he mutters, massaging his forehead. "Though what he said..." Going back to Minecraft, he sees that Hemming still has yet to log in after his character Herobrine's death and ominous, broken reassurance that everything is going to be alright.

Frustrated now, Markus attempts to re-call his brother. The call automatically prompts him to record and send a voice message. He blinks in surprise and grabs his phone, but drops it immediately when DiamondShiner74, recovered from his apparent lagging freeze, finishes his advance toward Notch. Markus screams an angry yell and slaughters the ignorant hacker in a blind fury.

Markus, gasping, leans forward in his chair and grips the edges of his desk hard. His hand shaking, he grabs his cell phone and jams his finger hard on the number designated for speed-dialing Hemming. The phone goes straight to voicemail. _That's impossible,_ Markus darts his enlarged eyes from his cell to his computer. DiamondShiner74's particles finally finish dissipating. _Hem uses his landlady's home line. He can't just TURN IT OFF._

The phone slips out of his sweaty hand and clatters to the floor. The weather radar for the lightning storm finally passes Hemming.

Three weeks later, Markus reluctantly completes a very beta _Minecraft_ and his extensive, OCD notes on every possible glitch to ever riddle and befall his precious game. But as his gaze wanders from Jens praising email to the framed photo of the Persson family propped up on his mantel, something breaks in him. A very young and small Markus has his arm around an even smaller Hemming. Hemming wears a neck collar and is badly burned, yet looks very happy to be with his brother.

He picks the frame up and half-smiles. "You couldn't stop yourself, could you? Just... Just had to play during that thunderstorm." Markus's hand rests gently on the warm glass front protecting the picture, his fingers parted around Hemming's grinning face.

"No wonder your head wouldn't stop twitching."

 **Thank you so much for taking the time to read 5-17-09! The story of Hemming, Markus, and DiamondShiner74 isn't quite over just yet. Expect Chapter 6 coming soon! ;)**


	6. Part 2 - Ranger

"Come on, this is _boring!_ When're ya gonna get in?"

"Be patient. I told you this will take awhile."

"But it _always_ does!"

" _Shut... Up. Pleeease._ " Ranger groans and smashes his forehead onto his keyboard. "Ughhh... It's taking longer than usual..." he grumbles.

Tony blinks and sighs, going over to the window. He folds his arms and rests them on the windowsill, gazing out at the vastly-lit city around them. "I heard rumors a lightning storm's comin'. You know, from the people I'm in that club with." He puts his chin on his forearms and squeezes his eyes shut. "It might be messin' with the WiFi." Hesitation. "Hey, maybe you shouldn't go on today." _I have a bad feeling._ Tony purses his lips and knits his eyebrows together, staring down at the campus scenery two floors below him.

Ranger snorts and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. He shoots his friend a snide look. "Oh, no way! Your club is crap. Besides, they would've had an announcement already.. And anyways, if Notch is really that oblivious to my presence, then what do I have to lose? Today'll be a waste if I don't go on! _Ha!_ " He cackles and rubs his palms together as the laptop brightens the moody attitude of Ranger considerably with a glitchy Minecraft title screen. "And he always logs in at seven PM. Always." he proclaims proudly, smiling in egotistical glory.

"Right..." Tony replies uneasily, moving away from the potentially-dangerous window to the comfort of his own twin-sized dorm bed. "And what are you gonna do if he isn't on?" He smirks and raises an eyebrow. Ranger blinks and growls. Tony laughs nervously and waves his palms in the air.

He sighs and flicks his disinterested eyes back down to his screen. Removing his arm from the back of his chair, Ranger turns fully to his computer with a snort and mutters to himself as he carefully maneuvers through the half-finished Minecraft start screen. "Now then... Multiplayer... Notch's world... Heheheh."

Tony rolls his eyes and pulls his backpack in front of his dangling legs. "Look, you hack. I work on papers." Grunting, he yanks out a large textbook from his backpack, causing random pencils to soar over the lip of the red bag and crash melodramatically onto the carpet. "Just remember that tab - y' know, the English grammar one - to hide Minecraft if a professor comes in."

"Right, right... I hate English." he grumbles, breathing a breathy sigh, his fist serving as his chin's pedestal.

"But you speak it pretty good." Tony replies with a shrug. "I learned Swedish pretty quickly."

"Yeah, but it took you less than half a year! English isn't that easy! It's taken-"

"-you _years_ to fluently learn the language, yes, I know, I know."

"Huhhh... Whatever. Now, come'over here! I gotta show you somethin'!" Frowning, Tony sets his heavy textbook aside and slides off his bed, striding over to his friend and roommate. "Now look here! Look look look!"

" _What?_ " he says, annoyed.

As Notch's world painstakingly loads, grows, and builds itself from the ground up, the furious tapping of Ranger's finger quickens to the speed of hummingbirds' wings. _Be patient, be patient... I'M NOT GOOD AT PATIENCE!_ His thoughts scream loud enough to be heard audibly.

" _Eerrugh-!_ Oh, hey, it finished loading." Ranger blinks and grins widely, removing his long fingers from his yellow hair and cracking his knuckles with a satisfied grunt. "Sweet, Notch built a new house. Oohhh, look, here comes Notch now." Tony scoffs and walks back to his bed. Ranger's avatar watches the programmer as he crunches on the grass toward-

Ranger's muscles freeze.

-another player. A standard skin, just like him; but unlike him, Notch seems to know the new player. In Ranger's mind, his mental processing of this new information kicks up to full speed, ordering his heart to palpitate, his lungs to hyperventilate, and his pale skin to clam up like he had just gone swimming. Gasping, he fans himself briefly before swallowing hard and grabbing the mouse again with a single flustered motion.

"You alright?" Tony asks, opening a silver laptop on his lap. "Oh, hey, what do you want the topic of your paper to be about? It can't be the same as mine though, or Professor Fresco'll get suspicious."

"Ah, ahhh..." The hacker darts his small eyes over to the window. " _Electricity!_ "

His friend double-takes, then grins and begins typing wildly yet expertly, hitting every key precisely with his head lowered into the depths of the laptop. _He'll be like that for a while,_ Ranger thought, smiling weakly. _which is good, 'cause I need the space. That, and I need to work on my paper. I really should've had Tony do it earlier this week... Heheh, before it was due tomorrow._

"Quick, shoot me a title."

"But _you're_ the one who's writing it!"

"But it's _your_ paper!"

"You're just bad at coming up with anything _good._ " Ranger replies coolly, smirking and folding his arms.

"That's not true!" Tony complains in a huff.

He sniffs and turns back to his computer. "Is too."

" _Is NOT!_ " he yells, standing up. His laptop defies begging gravity in Tony's clenched hands.

Suddenly, making both boys cringe, a sharp knock raps hard on their door. The doorknob rattles, then gives to a master key on the other side. The white-painted wooden door squeaks forward, revealing a very annoyed college professor. He releases the key on its extending keychain and lets his lanyard drop back down to his filled chest.

In his horror, Ranger slams his laptop closed and turns to the door, gasping and sputtering. In his haste, the open-capped water bottle goes flying - a sparkling gush of water soaring in a wide arc in the air - to the floor, soaking it. Tony looks like he's going to die, but not because of the spilled water. The computer slips from his sweat-covered hands and onto the ivory carpet. "Uh, Professor Fresco! Hi!" he ad-libs, rebounding back very quickly. Ranger just cringes, however.

"In Swedish, Tony. You may be a transfer student, but you're in Sweden now."

"Ah-ah-?!" He slams his hands over his mouth and laughs sheepishly. "S-sorry, Professor. See, I ac-cidentally p-procrastinated on my paper, sir, a-and I'm just so..." His voice trails off, leaving its owner high-and-dry-shaking in front of his bed. He moans a little.

"Stressed, sir. To the breaking point." Ranger adds flatly, lifting his pointer finger in comment. "That's why we fought, sir. He was stressed. Needed my help in figuring out a paper title. Before you ask, I'm already done." He smirks, crossing his legs and placing one arm behind him on the back of his desk chair. "The paper _is_ still the theme of computers, correct?" he asks stuffily.

Professor Fresco narrows his eyes. "I'd like to see your paper, Albin. Tomorrow, of course." He promptly stalks off, ignoring the door behind him. Tony, shuddering, stumbles across the carpet and closes it, leaning on it with a long-suppressed exhale crossed with a groan. He promptly faints.

Ranger - real name Albin - blinks and rolls his eyes at his friend before turning back to his poor laptop. He talks to it in a quiet voice as he opens it carefully, ever so carefully, dusting off the lucky screen in a stroking, caressing manner. But at the same time as Notch and the new player wander off, he openly wondered if Professor Fresco really knew his game.


	7. Part 3 Teaser

**This is a special little "teaser" for Part 3 told in the warped perspective of Herobrine in first-person. I hope you'll find excitement in what's to come, and I hope you'll keep reading to the end of 5-17-09!**

" _You're a monster!_ " Diamondshiner74 screams, swinging his sword wildly. I easily dodge despite my head lowered to watch his feet. Feet tell all. "You-you're-!"

I see it, his right foot stepping back. The ominous sound of a bow being drawn strikes my ears. I raise my head and chuckle darkly. "A monster?" I ask sickly, still laughing. "Hmmm... You're such a redundant boy."

Shrieking in delight, I leap in the air and whip out my own weapon of choice: a diamond sword, made with the highest possible enchant, fith twelve other blades made from the diamonds of different worlds I had visited, reminding me of who I am. The arrow bounces off effortlessly as I move the blade across the air to block my face.

As Diamondshiner74's body slams dully against the wall, his own arrow lodged deep in the center of his chest, I smirk. I see his eyes, lowering to the white feathers of the shaft - the only part visible - and up to the dungeon ceiling above him. They're rolling back.

"Oh _no!_ " I call, genuinely disappointed. "I was oh so waiting for this moment." I smirk and fold my arms. "You seemed so tough back in the good ol' days, _eh?_ " I lower myself to the stone and glide lightly forward, a dull, sick smile on my face. My sword taps against his collar and pushes his square chin up, revealing his neck. He moans slightly. "Back where you would _hack,_ and you would _hurt,_ and you would _harm..._ Harm my dear brother's _precious_ game. But oh! Oh, look yonder forward, Shiner! Here I am~! Here is Herobrine! Here to finish what _you started!_ " I scream, the voice belonging to me suddenly cranked up to max, fueled by a sudden raging torrent of anger and hate roaring toward a player I had near-forgotten about.

I regret forgetting.

My face grows dark and angry as I tighten the grip on my hilt. "N-no..." Diamond's arms move up with a great heave of his chest. It lowers back down with a choppy _huuhhh_ as his hands wrap around my child, my sword, my blade.

"Ooohh! I _knew_ you were still alive! Of course," I add, dropping my tone back down to a calm sea. He chokes and gasps for breath as my sword digs deeper into the nice little niche his head makes when it is tilted upwards. I flash a grin, my eyes focusing on the anguishing pain twisting and contorting his pitiful skin. " _I did say were._ "


	8. Glitch Tunnel

_This is unbelievable, just unbelievable._ Ranger scowls as the two players - Notch and this "Herobrine" guy - carve a smooth, two-by-two tunnel into his mountain! It was a void in personal property, an utter sniff at his rules and laws regarding the literal chunk of _Minecraft_ property that he claimed!

"Unreal. The jerk." He twists his head around to glance over at his friend, wide-awake now and sitting tensely on his bed, typing furiously on the bulky laptop. "Hey, Tony, done with it yet?"

"No." the roommate replies sullenly. "Since you yelled at me earlier, I'm working on mine first. Ask me in another five hours."

Ranger growls and jabs the "w" key hard with his middle finger. His character pitches forward from his halted position on the mountain, shooting into the empty air in front of him. Moving him like a limp doll, Ranger turns him around and drifts him so as to get a good view of the newly-dug tunnel. "Lookin' for diamonds, eh?" he mutters darkly, stroking his chin with a thoughtful right hand. Placing it right back where it belongs - on the mouse-pad - Ranger chuckles and releases DiamondShiner74's fly. His _Minecraft_ avatar drops like a stone block out of the air, soaring down a good stack of blocks only to crunch on the grass. If avatars could cry or moan, his surely would.

Leaning back in his office chair, Ranger watches his computer screen with a smirk. _Ohh, I love hacking. They don't even see me. Oh, oh, look, look, they've stopped._

He frowns.

 _I hope they don't turn around. Actually, no, I hope they do! So they can get the heck outta MY MOUNTAIN!_

The hacker calmly changes his game mode to "survival" and draws his glinting diamond sword. "Come on, come on... Aw!" He blows a great exhale of breath as Herobrine takes over the digging. "Dang it!" he yells, pushing himself up with his palms _slammed_ onto the desk, a certain fury in them. Just as he does so, a roar of thunder screams in the distance.

"Sh-shhh! Ranger, hush!" Tony hisses quietly, one finger to his thin lips. "I don't want to get in trouble again!"

"You will if you don't get our papers done." he sniffs, turning up his nose at Tony. Tony's face contorts a little, then drops back down to the harsh glow of his laptop. His fingers fly over the keys, loud, repetitious clacking the only sound in the strained room. It was like a rubber band stretched taut, just waiting to either be released or snap from the built-up pressure.

Ranger, with a purse of his lips and a click of his tongue, follows the two players down the tunnel. But instead of simply trailing after them, glistening sword in hand, ready to hack down his barriers, he swaps his game mode into "creative" and interchanges his sword to a diamond pickaxe; his avatar begins to dig deep into the mountain - away from the original pathway - creating a narrow side tunnel extending, winding, exploring deeper and deeper into _Minecraft_ strategically enough to know his position from the rest of the tunnel. And with every satisfying disintegration of a block, Ranger grew increasingly determined to exploit Notch's pet project for all its worth; extra player or no extra player.

He'd prefer no extra player.

As Ranger's _DiamondShiner74_ breaks into a cave, he stops and looks around. Ranger smirks and steeples his hands, elbows on the light grey desk. Zombies and skeletons continue to spawn in the large cavern, creaking and groaning in the dark. _With this, I can set up a pretty neat trap for that mystery player..._ "Heh-heh-heh..." he chuckles, rubbing his palms together. "Goodbye, Herobrine..." Clicking his tongue without thought, Ranger searches through his inventory for something he could possibly use for a satisfying end to the player he hates.

"Done!" Tony exclaims proudly. Ranger jumps, then turns a glaring eye toward his dorm mate, scowling deeply, raising a finger to his lips. "What?!"

"Be quiet and just finish mine now, okay? I don't care about your procrastination pride."

"I think I'm going to get a snack." Tony sniffs, sliding the laptop off of his thighs and standing with a groan. "I'll work on your paper in a few."

"Yeah, a few hours maybe." Ranger snorts, turning back to his computer and back to more pressing matters. The white dormitory door closes softly - softly enough to avoid another scolding from Professor Fresco - and Ranger lets out a held exhale of breath.

The hacker's attention is suddenly snapped to the far end of the cave where a standard player has spawned. His entire body stiffens, and his hand clenches around the mouse enough to kill it if it were alive. The player looks around, then begins to back away as the mobs advance slowly toward him, belting and bleating their sounds of anguish. Ranger's lips curl into a cunning smile. _My, my, look who it is._

"Herobrine. A pity we had to meet so early." He suddenly sucks in air sharply and grimaces as Herobrine's body contorts and twitches at the onslaught of mob-on-player. "Too early." Ranger swears loudly and bangs his fists hard on the keyboard. DiamondShiner74, on his human's unwanted command, moves forward sharply toward Herobrine's remaining pixels. One eyebrow twitching downward, Ranger groans like a zombie and moves his player back to a safe distance. _Great, the mobs already did him in. Typical newbie player - I don't even have to try, he just gets himself killed all by himself._

The dorm door opens with a squeak and closes with a muffled noise. "Hey, Ranger, I got you a coffee." Tony says.

Ranger twitches and whirls around, a look of panic melting to one of sheer relief. "Yeah. Yeah, thanks."

"Is...your voice shaking?" Tony steps forward and sets the steaming coffee down on the desk, to the right of Ranger's laptop. "It's not iced, obviously."

"Doesn't matter!" Ranger gasps, going toward the coffee. His hand misses it as he jerks his body hard to the right, the side of his hand slamming into and sending the hot beverage sailing across the desk to Ranger's hands and entire front. He takes a shuddering breath, eyes wide, and whimpers slightly. Tony swears and snatches the tissue box away from the windowsill, carting it immediately to his best friend. Ranger, gasping, face contorted in pain, blindly gropes for the kleenexes and presses them hard against his worn jeans with violently shaking hands. "Gah! This is w-why I hate hot drinks!"

"Sorry!"

His eyes desperately turn toward his laptop, and, not caring if he is still soaked to the skin with searing hot liquid, begins to grab at the tissues for emergency medical care of his keyboard. He lets out a sigh when the kleenex comes up clean and dry. Panic begins to block his nerves, panic that blinds him to any burns he may have, panic that moves DiamondShiner74 out of the cave, down his own tunnel, and bolting across the players' two-by-two tunnel to intercept his ignorant prey.

"I'll get you more coffee." Tony mutters, waking out of the room.

But Ranger does not even notice his comment. He stays direly focused ahead, breath coming out heavily. His _Minecraft_ avatar moves swiftly to the edge of a great chasm where he thus activates his flying - soaring to middle of the ravine and sharply cutting left. The ravine curves in a circle, and, at a satisfactory point, Ranger drops DiamondShiner74 down with a grimacing crunch and begins to frantically dig a one-by-two tunnel into the solid stone side of the ravine. He was not particularly looking for anything... just something he could use for a trap.

The window flashes and crackles with an electrical scream. Ranger barely darts his eyes to the window to notice the looming electrical storm.

The _Minecraft_ tunnel is suddenly filled with light as DiamondShiner74 breaks another row of blocks down, and Ranger's attention surprisedly jerks back to the screen. His pickax gleams as he steps inside the relatively small, plain cavern, a lava-fall - the source of the uplifting light - streaming quietly from the opposite wall.

Ranger's eyes abruptly fly open as an idea comes to mind, an idea he is sure Notch at least will heed without any hesitation.

A "glitch tunnel."

Now all he needs is for the two players to walk right into his trap.


	9. Ranger's Obsession

It didn't take long. Already he glimpsed the wayward players walking down his deathtrap, walking so casually that he wonders if they even care what is ahead: Notch's "glitch."

The intercom system crackles to life, "Attention, students, please shut down and unplug all electronics until the lightening storm passes. Thank you." before quickly shutting down again.

Ranger's eyebrows arch upward as a smirk curls to life on his face. Herobrine silently moves ahead of Notch in the tunnel, only to stop and allow the famed player back up front again. _So, I get my second-chance after all - Herobrine isn't the wimp I thought he was. Only..._

He mutters something and shifts away from his spot on the cavern wall to get a closer look at the pair. "...why isn't he moving?!"

"Why isn't who moving?" Tony says softly, attention tight to Ranger's paper.

"N-no one!"

His roommate cracks a thin half-smile. "Heh. Sure, Ranger. Just be quiet, okay, I'm still worried that Professor Fresco'll hear you."

The college student suddenly blinks hard and whips around. "When did you get here?"

He only gets a stare in response. "Since you started muttering something about 'Herobrine'...? Are you sure I don't need to call the police on you?"

"Shut up!"

"It's true." Tony shrugs, then glances back out the window, shoulders hunched nervously. "I'm honestly surprised we haven't lost our Internet yet. It's really bad out there. Though..." Very quietly, he mumbles to himself as he mindlessly stares at the window, his hands frozen at the keyboard.

Ranger scowls in growing annoyance. "Though?" he asks acidly.

"You should really get off," was the only thing Tony could manage out in a frail voice. "Look, doing your stupid paper, I've learned already that lightning strikes whilst on technology," His eyes whip up to Ranger's computer, "never result in positive affirmations." Now it was his turn to get a scalding, seething tone. "Get off."

"I'm not..." the roommate replies, unnervingly calm. "...getting off." One eye consistently trailed on the laptop screen, the other fiercely boring into his "friend," Ranger finally turns away to give doting attention to the sudden change in ambiance in _Minecraft:_ his victims have arrived.

Chuckling to himself, Ranger nimbly dives into his inventory bar and pulls out a wicked diamond sword, gleaming in the light of the hot lava, as DiamondShiner74 turns around dramatically; the warm orange light casts dark shades over the cunning avatar - the mirror of its controller - and for just a moment, their smiles are matched.

He watches with sharp interest as Notch supplements the horrible failure of a player with a pathetic sword, then pulls forth his own blade and steps in front of Herobrine. Something in that motion makes the small, fragilely-thin pillar of sanity in Ranger's mind crumble a little, and he screams, a bitter, broken noise that snaps both Tony's head up and Ranger's pillar down.

The swords collide in sparks. Grinding together as one attempts to get ahead of the other, the two finally decide that no winner is in store and they break away. Gasping for every shaking breath, Ranger slams his own weapon deep into the shoulder of his enemy, holding it and pushing it deeper until he's suddenly hit - hit with blow upon blow upon blow of utter torment for DiamondShiner74, hitting him back dangerously close to the edge of the lava pool. As if he was the one inside the game, not his avatar, Ranger feels every slice of the sword carve its way through his lanky body, cutting him up inside until Notch finally stops. His feet dig into the soaked carpeting in anguish, legs stiffening.

"R-Ranger, what are you doing, why'd you scream?! It was just thunder!" but despite Tony's comment from his spot on the bed, he never gets up to see Ranger cry.

His hands shake. His right hand, choking the mouse, trembles so violently that DiamondShiner74 trembles as well. And then, with the left hand stepping a finger up on the keyboard, the avatar shoots forward like a loose cannon, past Notch, past the depths of Madness, and crashes a critical blow onto Herobrine

just as his laptop crashes a critical blow onto Ranger.

Tony shrieks as Ranger's chair flys backward to the carpeted floor, a shock-eyed Ranger shaking in the middle of it, straw-yellow hair burnt upward, hands frozen out in front of him as if he could still play _Minecraft_ dead.

"Ranger!"

As Tony bends down to ease his friend to the floor, as his hands curl into a fist and slam down on his chest once - twice - Notch cuts down DiamondShiner74, and the computer screen crackles black.

"Ranger-!"

The world becomes a murky siege of sound. Ranger wheezes out a thin, weak cough, trying to move his hands, trying so hard to open his eyes only to find them stuck.

"Ranger, I-I'm c-c-calling 911, so, so just relax, okay?! It'll be alright!" The confidence in Tony's voice was anything but "alright." Without really replying, Ranger nods his head to the right and submerges himself away from the horrible torrent of noise drowning him, away to a black pit where he can at least have some quiet.


	10. In Limbo

"So you... You find yourself lost here too, am I correct in saying this?"

"What are you talking about? I'm dead, let's just leave it at that."

"No. Well..." He hesitates. "No." The voice firms. "You're stuck, you're not right."

"I've never been 'right.'"

"Are you the one who did this to me?"

At the sudden change in tone, Ranger snaps his head up, his eyes open, and he sees standing very still in front of him a man. A rather young man, with an unkempt appearance and deep bags underneath his eyes, absolutely drained so much in color that Ranger could swear they glowed in their dark, silent surroundings.

"I-I've never seen you before."

"And I have never seen you before." His eyes drift to the side, and sudden movement touches his lips, tugs them up in a musing, thoughtless smile.

A smile that turns Ranger's body cold.

Ranger's breath turns heavy and labored. "Where am I?!" he screams, suddenly terrified.

"Why," The man looks back up at him, "you're not anywhere I know of, that's for sure." As he speaks, his head jerks in rapid succession, and his tranquil attitude is broken by a snap of his arm instinctually toward his neck; a wince shatters his smile, a gasp breaks his words.

"What's your name?! What are you?!"

"My name is Hem - H-Hemm -" As he gets this name out, his eyes enlarge, and his head jerks again hard downward. "My name is Herobrine. I am human." His right arm comes up and fully extends out in front of him, hand splayed toward the college sophomore as if reaching out for help that he will never get. With a close of those empty eyes, the man quietly whispers something, the words lost as they rasp in his throat.

Ranger blinks and stares hard at the young man in front of him as his facial features change, "I am human, but..." melt into an anguished look of agony as he collapses into a digital heap of messy coding and pixels that silently shiver into the blackness around them - "I doubt I will be for long." His white eyes flash a solid streak of light before the remainder of his upper body destroys itself into the epitome of nothing.

At the sudden sight, Ranger screams and begins to run, run harder than he has ever run in his entire life, only to feel his knees snap beneath him and the ground torrent like an agitated whirlwind of burning, scalding energy, like the lava he found in that cave. His body numbs, and yet Ranger could still feel the tearing apart of his reality as his physical body crackles and separates into glitching piles of unrecognizable gibberish for code. The young man closes his eyes, sucking in his last breaths as a frightened hyperventilation, and then everything falls silent.

 _Wait-!_

 _Hero...brine...?_


	11. Minecraft's Ghosts

Ranger's eyes snap open once more, and he looks around, his entire body shivering despite there being no temperature around him. Around him being nothing he's ever seen before - filled with computer icons, folders, and data, collapsing around him like broken waterfalls.

Standing shakily, he glances around, arms hugging himself. To his right is a solid expanse of blue, pixelated in such a way that it might suggest an image if it wasn't garbled. To his left is blackness: a single plane of blackness so deep and distressing that Ranger automatically looks back toward the blue image.

Exhaustion weighing heavily on his burning eyes, exhaustion he cannot figure out the reason to, the student blinks hard and stumbles forward. "W-where...am I-?" He glances around, uncertain, but when his eyes catch on the familiar icons, those aptly-named folders -

"What?"

\- he had a feeling he knew.

"English Grammar," "Secret," " _Minecraft_." Of course, "English Grammar" was really his hacking resources and tools, and "Secret" was really his Shoujo manga files, renamed to look like school programs...

Ranger, with a sudden motion that momentarily warps his looming surroundings, tears off into a sprint, away from his frozen position of tiredness, away to those folder icons. _No, no, no no no no no! NO!_

He reaches out, grabs at one, and as soon as his biometrics touch the flat, too-smooth surface, a large window explodes from it. Ranger gasps for breath, struggling through the heavy feeling weighing him down and the sudden lightheadedness gracing his head; closing his eyes briefly to clear himself, he inhales and exhales before turning his attention to the school programs listed away inside the file folder. His hand shakes as he stares at them. No, no, it can't be, this has too much coincidence...

"...please, let it be all just a horrible nightmare!" he shrieks, double-tapping a finger onto one of the programs. The entire area around him - except for that black box - changes with a slow-motion disintegration, changing, transforming, tearing itself apart only to be rebuilt into a fluffy black-and-white still of a manga girl with large eyes locking lips with a bishounen man.

A laugh breaks out of him, an odd, strained laugh with no humor left in it at all. No joy, no lightheartedness, only a staining darkness that has bled into the college boy since he forged his high school certificate. No, even before then. When he was expelled.

Unbeknownst to him, the black panel behind him flickers to life, crackling with white static, yet the image seared on it is plain enough:

The college boys' dorm. Tony rocking silently on the bed as two paramedics carry a sheeted figure on a gurney out through the open door. He finally gets up, face greyed and as dead as Ranger, and walks up to the laptop still fried on the desk, until his the only thing visible is his torso. And then, with an odd silence, the picture narrows and falls black.

Ranger's breaths rise and fall, and his shattered laughter breaks off to quiet mutters as he moves his favorite shoujo manga out of the way and gazes over to the " _Minecraft_ " icon, its plain white design forever marking Ranger's life as a hacker. He stares hard at it, eyes blank, and his murmurs begin to take the shape of coherent sentences as he nods to himself.

 _That was Herobrine - the real Herobrine - I met bac-back in that dark place. That man...that pathetic young man got to legitimately beta test Minecraft? Play right next to Notch?_

 _I can control the icons in here, right? So I can play_ Minecraft _while in here, right?! Herobrine got in here the same way I did, so I bet he's already figured this thing out too, before me!_

Gasping, a sudden dizzy wave hitting him, Ranger leaps up and grabs at the icon with both of his hands, his knuckles white, nausea sinking deep in him; yet, despite this, he remains firmly attached to the game. The sick student reaches up one hand gingerly, curls it into a tight fist, and hits it smack in the center twice in succession. Once the second impact connects with the flat white square, he screams and disintegrates into _Minecraft_ , leaving only a grinning boy and girl in the world of his computer.

* * *

In a stained location, full of glitched pixels and fragmented coding, Hemming sits curled up in a small ball, head down, eyes narrowed with a vague sense of emptiness. All around him plays a screen capture of Herobrine's death at the bloodied hands of DiamondShiner74, repeated over and over until Hemming has become numbed to its existence.

"Who's the wicked one here, DiamondShiner74, me or you? Of course, it all depends, but..." He chuckles dryly and manages a false smile. "I'd like to see you again..." One hand comes up to empty air, his fingers loosely trailing but coming up without his brother grabbing it, without his brother's reassurance that everything will be alright -

Markus' smile comes alive in Hemming's fractured mind, sparking to life inside his splintered memory. _"- come on and beta test Minecraft with me."_

Hemming stands up abruptly, throwing out his fisted hands with enough force to shatter the boringly-repetitive death sequence. As he tips his head back, his eyes flash red for just a moment before settling into a permanent white stare. "If only to get my revenge on you."

A malevolent program follows his steps as he walks through the broken pictures into a world beyond human touch.

He gazes unforgivingly at the strings of coding linking every in-game element of _Minecraft_ , then seems to soften slightly. "This is the only home I have now, isn't it?" The young man sullenly stares upward and mutters to himself. "DiamondShiner74 doesn't belong here. But I'm sure he's already found that he can access _Minecraft_ , and if that child destroys the only home I have left, then that would be undesirable," he hisses.

Silently, Hemming drifts along, watching out for the one tile that'll be his ticket to beat DiamondShiner74. In the far back of the field of game elements, he finally catches that one he always heard from Markus: _"We, as players in the game, are called 'Entities.' Depending on the type of Entity, they can range in terms of health and solidity, but those are just one of the types of game mechanics in_ Minecraft. _I figured that while you were beta testing this, you might as well know about some of the coding aspects of it!"_

Hemming rolls his eyes. "I can't believe I even remembered that. Oh well," A smile touches his lips, "I can thank dear Markus now." A sigh escapes his lips as he stares at the floating tile, linking with countless other objects and coding strings. "Entities." With an odd hum, he brushes his hand against the coding strings for the player as he makes his way to the "Entity" aspect of _Minecraft_. The coding flares up and begins to break apart, crumbling and glitching into a garbled mess of data nearly unreadable.

The abandoned brother of Markus presses both palms against the tile, then closes his eyes as he pixelates away. The ride was quick, jolting, and Hemming finds himself in an even deeper mess of binary he can't even read. Before he could do so much as twitch, however, a prompt window comes up blinking with only a keyboard and one word:

Username_:

H

E

R

O

B

R

I

N

E

Hemming relaxes his shoulders, smiles, and allows his human body to disintegrate away as a new world builds up around him, encasing his old body in an unfamiliar new one consisting of geometric shapes and an uncomfortable hit box. With a snort, he accesses his own coding and casts aside the bulky rectangle. Welcome home.

Hemming is dead. Herobrine is not.

"DiamondShiner74!" I say, craning my head to look at the dark expanse of "sky" in the _Minecraft_ data realm. "I won't let you destroy my home, or my brother's creation. You've found an enemy, Diamond~, and that enemy is me!" My scream echoes in the entire web of _Minecraft_ , reaching out beyond computer systems to where

DiamondShiner74 stands in his own web of coding, manipulating strings, destroying links, and altering his basic "Steve" avatar into something a little more abnormal - a little thing with stark white eyes and generic features.

"I'm waiting, Markus! Don't disappoint me, 'kay?"


	12. Part 3 - Herobrine and Beast

"Hemming."

"Brother to Markus."

"Yes, brother to…Markus…" My voice trails off to a single breath.

"Unemployed. Abandoned."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"To make you see the truth."

I turn around. "The truth, Beast?"

The trojan horse, a young woman dressed in shades of red and black, perched on a cliff of coding, cocks her head and only smiles. She's infected my computer for years. I never bothered trying to get rid of the thin creature; not like I could, but…it's not as if those types of programs came free.

"Yeah. That you're worthless on…on Earth." Her hand comes up in a loose gesture and widens her smile as she bends down to stare daggers at me from her distance above me. "That horrid place. This place is better, I like it~." With a slight hum, Beast straights and kicks her slender legs, hidden by tall black boots, over the edge of the flickering coding wall. "You can always remain here, you know. Don't have'ta go in there. Hemming," Her red eyes lock onto my white ones, a sudden softness lifting the wicked pallor on her face to the level of pale concern. "Hemming, you'll die in there. It's not a good place to stay."

I only smirk and cross my arms, glancing my head to cast a disdainful glance in the direction of the rest of the _Minecraft_ internal coding. "I've already given myself a virtual avatar, sweetheart. I can't go back now."

"You'll die." she repeats, jumping down. Her nimble feet land on several varied panes of programming before finally landing just short of me. Beast's bloodshot eyes reach mine, now just inches away, and she grabs my head with both of her cold hands. "Hemming, read my lips —" One hand removes itself to trace said red lips, an unnatural shade that makes me feel chilled on the inside. "— whatever happens inside of there will alter you for the rest of your life. Never trust a video game to be infinite. Some day, you'll be deleted. They'll find you and they'll delete you from the game. It's that simple."

"Beast," I grab her hands and lock my eyes into hers: however hard they are to face. "I'm already dead."

Our smiles match. "Good. Then I'm sure you'll be able to relate with me when I say that I'm more dead than you think I am." She pauses, allowing her smile, cast with an evil mold, to linger just a little while longer. " _Minecraft_ will die someday too, you know. It may not be now, but you'll notice it. It'll exceed your memories of the place you want to call your home," Her breath, shaking slightly, hits my face. It doesn't have much of a smell. Maybe musty, maybe.

"Fine with me, princess."

"You'll be lonely. You don't exactly have the role of a friend here."

"I've always been lonely." I say, borderlining on a sigh. "Though if you have such a problem with this… Hahahah…"

"What?" Now her tone takes on blade qualities. "No."

"They'll scrap my computer, Beast. You'll be gone and wiped away, and this is our last chance before I'm discovered and they gut my apartment. So, come on,"

I back away and extend my hand out to her, a crooked smile locked onto my face.

"let's beat _Minecraft_."

She takes my hand.

Approaching the game's spawn programming, I force myself and Beast into the world that I've been so desperately been wanting to enter before she stopped me mere minutes ago.

A humored smile touches my lips and softly pulls them upward — I bet Diamond has already entered _Minecraft_.

Oh well. He doesn't have a virus with him.

I laugh as the world builds up around me: an insane, bubbling laugh that comes straight from the guttural depths of my soul.

The world is a funny place. Markus, the creator of _Minecraft_ himself, has been superseded by his scavenger brother in his own video game. I'm not here to ruin your game or even remotely destroy it, and Beast is too obsolete to do anything to your precious game except maybe help me to spy on each and every crevasse and every block of coding in this funny world with monsters that will bow to me.

Hello, Markus. I come with greetings and the knowledge that your game houses a far greater monster than me.

 _"I'll protect the players. Keep them safe from the things they can't see. I'm only there to protect them."_

And I swear, I'll destroy each and every one of DiamondShiner74's pathetic pixels until every player is safe.


End file.
